Reducing & recycling food waste during the festive period

Christmas is the time for eating, drinking, being merry and recycling food waste! With the average British household spending approximately £174 on food and drink for Christmas Day alone, it’s no wonder that the amount of rubbish and food waste increases by 30% as we go into the New Year. Unfortunately, a lot of this waste can end up in landfill if not recycled properly. We thought we’d put some tips together to help you reduce your food waste this holiday season, and give you some insight for recycling as much as you can.

Don’t buy as much food

We all know the feeling of sitting back after Christmas dinner and seeing just how much food is still left on the table. Leftovers can be great if you know how to make the most of them, but if you don’t, they normally end up in the bin. With 7.9 million slices of turkey, 7.5 million mince pies and 17.2 million Brussels sprouts thrown away every year, the easiest way to cut down on this would just be to buy less. Make a plan and work out how many people you’ll be cooking for, and how much food each of them needs. Not only will this reduce the amount of food waste your household produces, it will also save you money – win-win!

Plan out how to use leftovers

It can be hard to make an accurate plan of how much food to get, because who knows who’s going to pop in over Christmas?! If you think you’ll end up with leftovers, it is a good idea to think ahead and plan out how you’re going to use them. There’s the classic turkey and stuffing sandwich that we all know and love, but there’s no reason you can’t be more ambitious! Turkey curries, turkey fajitas and turkey omelettes are all easy and tasty ways to get rid of leftover meat. There’s no end to recipes you can use for leftover vegetables, like soups, stews and casseroles. Again, this will save you money, as well as reducing waste. For a full list of recipe ideas, BBC GoodFood has a whole section dedicated to recipes for leftovers.

Start composting

Whilst it may not be the season to get out and do a bit of gardening, you can still start creating your compost pile over the festive season. Left over vegetables and peelings are the perfect products to add, as they’ll decompose and turn into a great compost that you can spread over your plants and garden later in the year. This also saves them going to landfill, reducing your food waste.

Know your dates

Over the festive period, your bin collection dates will probably be different to when they normally are for the rest of the year. It is common to receive a leaflet through the door advising you on when your bins will be collected, so make sure you sort through your waste and put it in the right bin in time for collection. Missing the collection date will often cause rubbish to start to pile up. This can make the collection service’s job harder, as well as causing mess and stress for you at home. If you don’t get a leaflet, or if you get one and lose it, you can check your local council’s website or give them a ring.

If you have any further questions about food waste and recycling or you’d like to spend some time talking to a member of our expert team, don’t hesitate to get in touch!